A Different Christmas Surprise
by Happy Stranger
Summary: Seven-year-old Rose did something she shouldn't have, and now she's feeling apprehensive about 'fessing up. It's just a bit of Christmas fluff :)


**Story Description: **Seven-year-oldRose did something she shouldn't have, and now she's feeling apprehensive about 'fessing up. It's just a bit of Christmas fluff :)

Rose _hated_ feeling guilty. It had to be the worst feeling in the world; not only did she have to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, she couldn't _tell_ anyone about it. When her pet gerbil had died the previous year, her mum had held her and comforted her, and her dad had made her hot cocoa and promised her that Cal was in a better place. When Hugo accidentally ripped the head off one of her favorite dolls, she had been angry, but it felt good to get it out of her system by letting him know that she was mad. And yet, now, she was stuck, because she couldn't tell anyone _why_ she was feeling guilty without getting into trouble.

The sound of her grandma's voice broke the silence of the room. "Kids, dinner!" She shook herself out of her reverie, and proceeded down the stairs. Grandma Molly's mouth-watering Christmas eve dinners were, as her uncle George put it, somewhat wistfully, good enough to bring back the dead. James, Albus and Hugo greeted her at the bottom of the stairs, and Albus appeared to be sporting a banner that read 'I await Krampus.' Rose unpinned it from the back of his shirt and favoured James with a severe look. It was a ceaseless source of wonder to her that Albus was such a 'naïve, sweet, baby' when he had James as a brother. Albus turned to his brother with a wounded look but their exchange was lost in the entry of uncle Bill and his noisy family into the living room.

The Weasleys crowded around the magically extended dinner table and began to pile the delicious-smelling food on the special crockery that Grandma Molly took out only in the Christmas season. James sat to her left while Victoire and her parents settled down on her right. "So, what did you do?" James asked her conversationally while making space on his plate for more sausages. Her head whipped around. "What do you mean?"

"For the Christmas prank," he said, sounding confused that she didn't know what he was talking about. _Oh right, that._ James wasn't that perceptive; he wouldn't know that she had done something wrong. But then again, he got into trouble a lot, and wasn't the type to tell on her. Maybe he could help her out. "Never mind that," she said, the words tumbling out of her mouth now that she was finally telling someone. "I sorta did something that I shouldn't have, and I don't know how to fix it."

"That's just a part of growing up," he said, nodding his head wisely. "You'll learn that someday, kid." Rose scowled at him. "You're only a year older than me." He waved her words away and continued, lowering his voice dramatically, "As long as it isn't so bad that Christmas is cancelled, you'll be alright." She couldn't help the horrified look that crossed her face at the thought of that. Cancel Christmas? That wasn't possible, was it?

She could no longer bear to look at the Christmas tree that adorned the living room. Her presents were under the Christmas tree in their house, but what if they had disappeared by the time she went back home? Santa gave presents only to good children, and if she wasn't considered bad after what she'd done, she didn't know who would. She hadn't meant to, but it had happened too quickly for her to realize it, and just like that, she'd cheated on a test. _Rose Weasley _had _cheated_ on a test, and while that was unbelievable by itself, she'd actually _wanted_ to at the time. She folded her hands on her lap and looked up to see Albus looking at her, with a concerned expression on his face. She straightened up immediately, and tried to act normal, because if she didn't, Christmas would be cancelled and it would be _her fault_.

She tried to listen as James prattled on about turning uncle Harry's hair green as the Christmas prank, but began to tune out again as she imagined her mum's expression if she found out that Rose didn't deserve presents for Christmas. Grandma Molly was now packaging some mince pie for each of them; there were a lot of leftovers despite how much everybody had eaten. Rose had picked at the dessert, for even the heavenly pie hadn't been enough to distract her.

She hugged her grandparents, and accepted the bag of chocolate frogs that Grandpa Arthur offered her, before flooing back home after her parents. Her eyes roamed towards the Christmas tree, and froze on the presents underneath. Nothing seemed to have disappeared, and she didn't know why, but that honestly made her feel worse. "Alright there, Rosie?" her father asked, dusting the ash off her clothing as she climbed out of the fireplace. "You look a bit peaky."

"I'm fine," she mumbled, and ran up the stairs to her room before she was asked any other questions. Her room was decorated in red and gold: Gryffindor colours that she had insisted upon even though she wasn't yet old enough to attend Hogwarts. She was sure that she would be sorted into Gryffindor, everyone in her family had been, after all. Right now, though, she didn't feel like a Gryffindor, she felt like a coward. In that moment, she decided that she wasn't going to sit around feeling sorry for herself, she was going to _do_ something about it. Rose Weasley was no coward, she was as Gryffindor as they came.

She walked up to her parents' bedroom and knocked once before entering. Her dad was sitting on the bed and fiddling around with a muggle device her Grandpa Arthur said was called a laptop, and her mum was sitting at the desk in the corner of the room, rifling through papers filled with her neat, tiny handwriting. Hermione Granger was a formidable witch, but at the moment she looked a bit lost, with her hair flying around her face and her books and papers spread all around her.

"Mum? I need to tell you something."

There. She had gone ahead and said it, and she couldn't take it back now. "Yes, honey?" her mother said distractedly, still looking for something in the mass of papers. "I cheated on a test."

Rose was proud of how she had said it, without stammering. Her voice hadn't been shaky in the least, and it was as Gryffindor as she had wanted it to be. The only problem was that Rose now had Hermione's complete and undivided attention, and the effect was more than she could handle.

"What!?"

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, her courage failing her, and turned towards her dad, who was looking at her as though she had turned into a Hippogriff.

"Which test was this?" Hermione asked, her voice taking on a distinctly sharper tone.

"It was the History test," she said, her eyes finding her mother's once more before quickly dropping to the ground.

"Wasn't this test three days ago? What took you so long to tell me?" Rose winced at that, and said nothing. Why had she thought this was a good idea? What was she supposed to say now? What had been her plan, anyway?

"Calm down, 'Mione, it's just History," Ron interjected before dropping it at the glare Hermione shot his way.

"Why did you cheat, Rose?" Hermione asked, forcing her voice into a tone less terrifying. She was dealing with a seven-year-old, after all, and not a Dark Wizard under interrogation.

"I just wanted to do well," Rose said, and teared up without meaning to.

Hermione visibly softened at that, and rested her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "You'd do well even without cheating."

"But Scorpius said that he was going to do better than me this time, and he's so annoying that I wanted to _win._"

Scorpius was one of the other children that she went to school with. Since their parents were too busy to homeschool them, and there was always a danger of accidental magic in muggle schools, the children younger than eleven went to local pre-schools that squibs and volunteers had opened after the war. It hadn't been commonplace in the beginning, but as witches and wizards realized the convenience of such a thing, it gained popularity.

Her dad muttered about Malfoys being a bad influence, while her mum just looked at her, as though waiting for a better explanation. She took that as a cue to continue. "He's always bragging about how he's the smartest, 'cept he's not, I've beat him in every single test, but last time he did better than me and I knew he'd win if I didn't do anything, and so…" she trailed off, looking back up to see the effect her words were having. Her mum looked more disappointed, if anything.

"Rosie, you know better," she reprimanded quietly, and Rose hated that she was crying for no apparent reason. It wasn't that she couldn't take criticism, it was the fact that her mum was _right_.

"You don't learn anything when you cheat, and it's unfair to the others because you're getting ahead without putting in any effort. A penny earned is worth much more than a pound found." Rose nodded miserably; she'd heard that muggle proverb before.

"And if you want to do better than Scorpius, you'll do it the right way, by working hard. Your victory doesn't mean anything if you don't deserve it. That being said, I'm proud of you for telling me."

"I told James and he said Christmas would be cancelled because I'm a bad person," she blurted out. Her mum didn't look angry anymore, only somewhat resigned. She walked over to the bed and motioned for Rose to join her. "Rosie, you're not a bad person. You're a good kid who made a mistake, and that's okay as long as you don't do it again."

Rose leaned into the hug her mother offered her, and felt the smell of shampoo wash over her nostrils. She _knew_ that her mum would make her feel better eventually. "And don't believe everything James says," Ron said from over her shoulder. "If anything, we should have cancelled Christmas when James burnt down the kitchen last December." She snorted at the memory of that, before becoming serious once more. "I'm sorry, mum. It won't happen again."

Her mum nodded, pretending to reach for something behind her and tickling her instead. She laughed and wriggled away, now nestled in between her parents. "Oh, and you're absolutely doing that test again this week," Hermione informed her, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Aw, in the holidays!" Rose pouted, before giving in and snuggling closer. There was no way her mum's version of the test wouldn't be harder, but Rose didn't really mind. She liked a challenge. Her mum pulled the covers over her and she breathed in the smell of the familiar shampoo once more before closing her eyes.

There was mince pie in the fridge, presents under the tree, including one shaped like a bicycle, and her parents loved her. She knew it was going to be a wonderful Christmas.

_My lovely readers, thank you for reading! Reviews are like cookies; they make me happy!_


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